St. Patrick’s Day + Spring Training = Irish Baseball!

Around this time every year, people find out about the existence of baseball in Ireland. More specifically, people begin googling terms like “Ireland,” “Irish,” and “baseball,” and they find, among millions of other things, a documentary called “The Emerald Diamond.”

I made “The Emerald Diamond” in 2006. It tells the story of Irish baseball’s relatively brief — yet magical — history.

The film was shown in theaters in 20 cities in the US and it was also screen at theaters in Dublin and Cork. Since then, it has been shown on television and it is available on DVD. But you can also find clips on YouTube — and that is where many people will be finding out about Irish baseball for the first time this year. And, hopefully, some of them will purchase Baseball Ireland T-shirts and Irish National Baseball Team caps, to show their Irish pride and support the continued development of baseball programs in Ireland.

So, in case you haven’t heard the story, here are the first few minutes of the documentary. Please share with family and friends who are baseball fans or Irish-American (or both!):

THE EMERALD DIAMOND – CLIP #1

In this clip, we meet some of the major players in the development of baseball in Ireland.

THE EMERALD DIAMOND – CLIP #2

Ireland’s National Baseball Team prepares for their first international competition in 1996.

THE EMERALD DIAMOND – CLIP #3

The first player to get a hit for Ireland was Gus Hernandez — an Irishman by way of Mexico (and marriage).